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Keroluttonary Solbiers' (Brakes 

IN 

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP 

Zriontgomcry County, Pennsylvania 

And the Surrounding Townships of Roxborough and Blockley, 

In Philadelphia County; Haverford and Radnor, in 

Delaware County; and Upper Merlon and White 

Marsh, In Montgomery County. 

Pt^BPRI^ED OflOBl^ THE AOSPICHS Op 

IBerion Chapter, Daughters of the flmeriean Hevolution 

RJiO POBliISHHD fiY 

JKps. John p. Oevelin, Regent 



21ISONXG02VSBRV COUNTV, PK. 
1S06 



(UnjM^ 



Officers of Merion Chapter 

1906 n 5=1 






Regent 
Mrs. John F. Develin 

Vice-Regetits 

Miss Mary E. Harding Mrs. Edward H. Harding 

Mrs. S. T. Jones 

Recording Secretary 
Mrs. Beulah H. Whilldin 

Corresponding Secretary 
Mrs. Peter J. Hughes 

Registrar 
Miss Henrietta C. K. Ydndt 

Treasurer 
Miss Ellen J. Heston 

Historian 
Miss Margaret B. Harvey 

Board of Management 
Mrs. J. P. RowBOTHAM Mrs. Wesley H. Hoot 

Mrs. George J. DeArmond Miss Virginia Marshall 

Mrs. John F. L,eak 



Revolutionary Soldiers' Graves. 

Merion Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, started 
the work of locating Revolutionary soldiers' graves in the spring of 
1896. The general public can have no conception of the immense 
difficulties encountered. All of the old burying-grounds in Lower 
Menon were visited and the antiquated tombstones carefully exam- 
ined. In some cases, the nearly effaced inscriptions had to be 
scratched with sticks, or rubbed with paper, before they could be 
decii)hered. Wherever a man's name could be found, with dates 
showing that he lived during the Revolutionary period, or was of 
a proper age to have served during the Revolutionary war, that 
name and those dates were faithfully copied. 

Next came the work of consulting old burial records. But, 
unfortunately, these were few. After laborious research, very little 
in addition was gleaned to what had already been gathered from the 
tombstones. 

Now came the tremendous task of deciding how many of these 
men, whose names had been gathered, actually did serve in the 
Revolutionary war. Their names might be in the Pennsylvania 
Archives, but these records were themselves incomplete. Still, with 
all difficulties, the names of seventy-seven Lower Merion patriots 
were discovered. 

Following is the first list, as published in the Bryn Mawr Home 
News, May 19, 1896. The same list is mentioned in the "First Re- 
port of the Daughters of the American Revolution to the Smith- 
sonian Institution, 1890 to 1897" (see page 73). 

Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Lower Merion. 

In St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Ardmore, Col. Philip Lowry, 
Casper Weest, John Brooks, John P. Miller, Martin Miller, John 
Smith, John Goodman, William Smith, Joseph Grover, William 
Wagner, David Young, Llewellyn Young, Peter Ott, Peter Ott 
(2nd), Peter Trexler, George Horn, George Horn (2nd), Daniel 
McElroy, John Horn, Ludwick Knoll, Martin Wise, Adam Grow, 
Jacob Waggoner, Jacob Latch, Michael Fimple. 

In the same cemetery are interred the following-named soldiers 
of the War of 1812: Col. Conrad Krickbaum, Col. Wm. Pechin, 
Adam Litzenberg, John Fimple, John Latch, John Stadelman. 

In the Lower Merion Baptist Cemetery, Bryn Mawr, are inter- 
red the following-named Revolutionary soldiers : Samuel Davis, 
William Thomas, Joseph Wilson, John Wilson, James Wilson, John 
Elliott, John Young, Jacob Morris, John Cornog. 

In the Lower Merion Friends' Burying Ground, near the Gen- 
eral Wayne : Lieut. -Col. Algernon Roberts, Thomas Roberts, Joseph 
Roberts, John Roberts, William Roberts, Jacob Hoffman, John 



Wells, John Price, Isaac Davis, Lieutenant Thomas Wynn, Daniel 
Williams. 

In the Bicking Family Graveyard, Mill Creek : Frederick Bick- 
ing, Jno. M. Kuhn. 

Harriton Family Cemetery : Major William Cochran. Here 
was first interred Charles Thomson, Secretary of Continental Con- 
gress, who gave the ground now occupied by Lower Merion Baptist 
Church and Cemetery. 

West Laurel Hill Cemetery. The bodies from the German Re- 
formed Church Burying Ground ; from the First Unitarian, and from 
the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, were removed to this 
beautiful place. 

In the plot of the German Reformed Church were re-interred 
the following-named Revolutionary soldiers : Col. Archibald Steele, 
Captain Andrew Long, Charles Gerhart, William Long, Jacob Ed- 
denburne, Valentine Smith, James Irwin, John Stotsenburg, John 
Stroop, Jacob Koorer, John Coleman. 

First Unitarian Plot: Henry Peale, Thomas Harper, George 
Murray, John Redman, Caleb Foulke, John Spencer, John Wright, 
W. Wright, Joseph Barnet, William Turner, Robert Campbell. 

Church of the Epiphany : William Brown, Robert Ellis, Henry 
Murray, Edward Moore, John Montgomery. 

Merion Chapter also located the graves of the following-named 
Revolutionary soldiers : 

In the Blockley Baptist Cemetery : John Suplee. William Shel- 
drake, John Graham. 

In the Rose Family Burying Ground, Fortieth and Ludlow 
Streets, West Philadelphia : William Rose. Charles Robinson. 

Woodlands Cemetery. West Philadelphia : Col. Edward Heston. 
(See West Philadelphia Telephone, May i6. 1896.) 

In the Bryn Mawr Home News for May 28, 1897, appeared 
another list of Revolutionary soldiers buried in Lower Merion. The 
following names had been added : 

In St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Ardmore : John Fiss, William 
Fiss. Soldiers of 1812: Jacob Stadelman. Simon Litzenberg. 

Merion Chapter has, in addition, identified the graves of several 
Revolutionary soldiers in the Leech Family Burying Ground, near 
what is now Fifty-first Street and Greenway Avenue, Philadelphia. 
Among these are the last resting places of John Leech, William 
Leech, Jacob Hofifman, and David Sheldrake. This last was the 
father of William Sheldrake, buried in Blockley Baptist Cemetery. 
See "I-'ourth Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the 
American Revolution to the Smithsonian Institution." page 417. 

Since these first lists were published, the Third Series of Penn- 
sylvania Archives appeared, which gave additional Revolutionary 
records, and the names of the taxables in all the old Pennsylvania 



Charles Thomson, Secretary of Continental Congress, was at 
first interred in the Harriton Family Cemetery, on his own ground 
and among his wife's kindred. It was his own wish to lie in this 
beautiful, sequestered spot. When Laurel Hill Cemetery was opened 
his nephew and other professed admirers removed the patriot's 
remains surreptitiously, and re-interred them in the new burial 
ground. The Harriton property was then in possession of the Mor- 
ris family, relatives of Mrs. Charles Thomson. To remove Secre- 
tary Thomson's body was trespass, as to reach the family burying 
ground it was necessary to cross private property ; but, as the Morris 
family were Quakers, they felt bound to follow out the doctrine of 
non-resistance. Hence, they never demanded the return of the stolen 
body. But Mr. George Vaux, of Philadelphia, whose wife was a 
Morris, is of the opinion that the robbers did not succeed in finding 
the right body. The graves believed by him to be occupied by the 
remains of Charles Thomson and his wife are marked with rough 
stones, and the memorial tablet has never been taken out of the en- 
closing wall. 

It is but just to say that the greater part of the arduous labor 
of identifying Revolutionary soldiers' graves was inaugurated and 
carried out by Miss Margaret B. Harvey, who has been Historian 
of Merion Chapter from the time of its organization in 1895. This 
Chapter has made it a special work to popularize the Colonial and 
Revolutionary history of Lower Merion and vicinity. 

DORA HARVEY DEVELIN, 
(Mrs. John F.) 

Regent. 

Winter address — Hamilton Court, West Philadelphia, Pa. 
Summer address — Fernwood, Pa. 



APPENDIX. 

Since the above was written, the graves of the following-named 
Revolutionary patriots have been located : 

Blockley Baptist Cemetery : John Little, William Donaldson, 
John Gamber, Peter Worrell, John Tyson, Benjamin Town, Benja- 
min Miller, Thomas Wyatt, William McClure. 

Lower Merion Friends' Burying Ground : Richard Jones, Ed- 
ward George. 

St. Paul's Lutheran, Ardmore: Henry Colflesh. 

Radnor Friends' : Mordecai Morgan. 



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LIBRrtRY OF CONGRESS 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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